Where the Michigan season starts. The southern tier warms first, so this is the front edge of the wave every year and the first place anyone in the state finds anything.
Towns and reference points: Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids. In 2026 the modelled window here opened around April 14, which is one year and not a schedule.
Loading station observations.
Southern Michigan is the earliest ground in the state and the most heavily hunted, because it is close to the most people. The hardwood river bottoms through the southern counties are the classic setting: ash and elm on moist, well drained soil, with south facing slopes coming on first.
Being first has a cost. This is where pressure is heaviest, and a spot that produced in April can be picked over by the time you get to it on the weekend. The compensation is that when the rest of the state is still frozen, this is the only game running.
This site tells you when to look. It will never tell you what is safe to eat. False morels grow in the same woods at the same time of year and people are hospitalised by them in Michigan every spring. Some contain gyromitrin, which can cause severe poisoning and has killed people.
Learn identification in person, from someone qualified, before you eat a single mushroom. Michigan runs a certified wild mushroom expert programme, and the Michigan Mushroom Hunters Club holds forays where you can learn from people who know. If you are not certain, do not eat it. Certainty means certain, not fairly sure. What false morels look like.
Morel season is a wave, so the useful question is not only what is happening here but how far the front has moved. If this region has finished, the answer is north.
Lansing, Saginaw, Flint, Mount Pleasant. Opened April 14 in 2026.
Cadillac, Traverse City, Gaylord, Houghton Lake. Opened April 17 in 2026.
Sault Ste Marie, Newberry, Escanaba. Opened May 19 in 2026.